Learning Dysfunctions in Information Systems Development: Overcoming the Social Defenses with Transitional Objects

Multiview is a framework to support the information systems development process. It was formulated originally in 1985, but has been developed and changed since that time. It was originally defined to take into account the human and organisational aspects of information systems development, as the alternative methodologies of the time–and most since that time–took a very technology-oriented approach. Furthermore, it is a contingency approach, and again this compares with the alternative bureaucratic and prescriptive methodologies. In this chapter, we describe the history of Multiview, and we reflect on the experiences of using it in action in many organisations.

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Using Causal Mapping to Support Information Systems Development

Causal Mapping for Research in Information Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-396-8.ch011 ◽

2005 ◽

pp. 263-283 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Fran Ackermann ◽

Colin Eden

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Systems Development ◽

Information Systems Development ◽

Shared Understanding ◽

Cultural Elements ◽

Causal Mapping ◽

Structured Design ◽

The Social ◽

Special Software ◽

New System

Identifying what different stakeholders in a business need from Information Systems development has always been seen as problematic. There are numerous cases of failure as projects run over time, over budget, and, most significantly, do not meet the needs of the user population. Whilst having a structured design process can go some way towards reducing the potential of failure, these methodologies do not attend sufficiently to clarifying and agreeing objectives or to considering the social and cultural elements inherent in the ownership and adoption of any new system. Instigating an effective, and structured, dialogue between users, developers and, when appropriate, sponsors, is therefore a critical consideration. Linking user needs, as they see them, to the language of IS developers and vice versa is crucial. Both parties need ownership. This chapter focuses upon the use of causal mapping, supported where appropriate by special software, that facilitates the development of a shared understanding (of both business needs and IT opportunities) and through this common platform enables a negotiated and agreed outcome. The nature of the outcome invites translation to structured design processes.

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The Discursive Structure of the Social-Technical Divide: The Example of Information Systems Development

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1111/j.1467-954x.1995.tb00603.x ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 251-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Janet Rachel ◽

Steve Woolgar

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Social Relationships ◽

Systems Development ◽

Development Project ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Information Systems Development ◽

Moral Order ◽

Private Sphere ◽

Social Actions ◽

The Social

The social and technical are commonly defined in opposition to each other. Yet technology practitioners are often quite comfortable with the idea that the technical is constitutively social. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a computerised information systems development project, this paper examines various usages of notions of ‘technical’. Attempts to situate the study at the ‘technical core’ of the project were met with a series of rebuffs. ‘Technical’ talk is to be understood as a categorising device which does boundary work. Technical talk invokes and performs a disjunction between networks of social relationships and stipulates a moral order with associated norms for acceptance and transition. The difficulty of penetrating the intelligibility of technical talk is understandable as a struggle in familiarising oneself with the routine social actions of a separate community. In addition, the private sphere of the technical is often distanced in time. The costs involved in journeying into the future are analogous to those of penetrating alien cultures. Ideas of progress and advance are often associated with the invocation of ‘the technical’. These connote a notion of timing which reinforces the distance and difference of – and hence depicts the costs involved in penetrating – removed sets of social relationships. Technical a. Appropriate or peculiar to, or characteristic of, a particular art, science, profession, or occupation (OED).

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